John Gilchrist: Plowshare brings fresh ideas to favourite space

The Plowshare Artisan Diner's David Carruthers, left and Michael Scarcelli stand by the bar which includes reclaimed wood and metal from the Grain Exchange Building where the restaurant is located in downtown Calgary.Gavin Young / Postmedia

A wave of deja vu washed over me as I set foot in Plowshare Artisan Diner a few days before it opened at 817 1st Street S.W. (403-860-8182). The heavy oak and glass door creaks and rattles in the same way it has for decades, the black-and-white tile and mosaic floor is a bit more cracked and stained but really hasn’t changed and Witold Twardowski was pounding nails in the wall to hang pictures. Surely I’ve seen him do that before. A few times.

Twardowski has been associated with the former tailor shop in the Grain Exchange building space since 1980. Back then he had the idea to open a small cafe with good food and a bohemian tone. (That tone was enhanced by its proximity to The Love Shoppe next door.) It was dubbed Divino and was a smash hit for a few years but eventually — after the early ’80s oil bust — fell into receivership.

Twardowski, with the help of new partners Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts (CRMR), recovered the space in the mid 1980s and re-opened it — after more nail pounding — as Cascade Grill. Then in 1988, the team refreshed the space and brought back the old popular name Divino. In 1991, when the neighbours departed, Divino expanded into The Love Shoppe space, more than doubling in size.

Divino shifted over to Stephen Avenue under the CRMR banner in 2000 and the old space re-surfaced under new ownership as The Gypsy. Then earlier this year The Gypsy closed and, as Twardowski says, “the space called to me.” So more nails, plus a few booths, a couple of metal gas station signs, a heavy wooden harvest table fronted by a long wooden bench and everything old is new again.

A vintage coffee grinder decorates the entrance area of the new Plowshare Artisan Diner in the Grain Exchange Building in downtown Calgary. Gavin Young Gavin Young /
Postmedia

Twardowski calls himself the Creative Director of the project and says he’s doing mostly design work these days. The restaurateur who helped bring memorable places such as Mescalero, Teatro, Cilantro, River Cafe and more to Calgary says he’s “too long in the tooth” to operate restaurants anymore. He’s been wise over the years to align himself with talented people such as Sal Howell of River Cafe, Dario Berloni of Teatro and the O’Connors of CRMR.

And so it is with Plowshare. David Carruthers, formerly of Last Best and the Ship & Anchor, is the operating partner while Mike Scarcelli, previously of Teatro, is the head chef. Both bring a wealth of experience to the Plowshare project.

Plowshare is open daily from 7 a.m. through dinner. (Sundays only til 3 p.m.) So the day menu is packed with steel-cut oats ($6), lemon-ricotta pancakes ($11.50), eggs Benedict on housemade biscuits ($13.75 – $16) and braised short ribs ($16). The evening menu carries over a number of the day items and adds the likes of bacon-wrapped meatloaf ($16), citrus-cured gravlax ($12.75) and roast chicken ($18). It’s a mneu and a setting that may send you into a deja vu spin too.

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While many Calgarians dream of spending time in Victoria, some Victorians have recently added a pied a terre here in Calgary. Patrick Lynch and Sterling Grice, founders of Victoria’s popular Foo Food, have teamed up with Calgarian Mark Carrillo to open a Foo outlet in the former Koob space at 2015 4th Street S.W. (403-454-2666). It’s the first Foo outside Victoria where the original shop has been open seven years and where a Foo Ramen Bar opened recently.

Foo offers fast, casual Asian street food drawn from Grice’s and Lynch’s experiences in Asia. You’ll find pad Thai noodles, beef and broccoli chow mein, tuna tataki, red coconut curry and saag paneer on the menu, all dishes that are whipped up fresh to order. And all are priced in the low teens.

Lynch is the chef, trained at London’s Le Cordon Bleu and with years of cooking eastern cuisines in Vancouver and Victoria. He’s travelled and cooked extensivley in Asia, including some time as the chef at the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh. His Foo recipes are fresh, simple and fast, a modern take on street traditions. You order at the counter, grab one of the twenty-five seats or linger at the counter and your food will arrive briskly. As much is prepared for take-out as it is for dine-in and, with no reservations, Foo is a constant hum of activity.

Running the Calgary Foo is third partner Carrillo, who managed Farm for the past eight years. Carillo has been a friend of the Foo founders for years and suggested that Calgary would be a fine location for their expansion. The location in the former Tivoli building on 4th Street is a natural for this cuisine. Foo opens daily at 11 a.m. and has become very busy very quickly.

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Congratulations go out to Karen Anderson and Noorbanu Nimji for picking up a silver medal at this year’s Taste Canada Awards for their cookbook — A Spicy Touch: Family Favourites from Noorbanu Nimji’s Kitchen. It’s a beautiful book with great recipes and well deserves to be noted as one of the top cookbooks in Canada this year.

John Gilchrist can be reached at escurial@telus.net or at 403-235-7532 or follow him on Twitter @GilchristJohn

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